|
Without the basic necessity of sufficient food, children can't learn productively. People living with restrictive health conditions and/or disabilities cannot heal and improve their lives. People with fixed low incomes weaken and become prone to disease. Single-parent families can't escape the cycle of poverty. And the homeless population is further put at risk.
The Lower Mainland has the second largest poverty rate in Canada. According to Hungercount 2001, over 20% of the population cannot obtain enough and appropriate food to maintain a healthy diet.
Currently, Quest helps to provide food assistance to nearly 70,000 people a month in the Lower Mainland.
|
 The common barrier
associated with low income is having healthy food at home, school lunches or even school snacks for the children. Some of the families that come to our centre and our programs struggle with this and Quest has enabled us to provide some much needed food for their families... Quest has helped provide hope and promise to the women and children of the community by allowing them to have more nutritious meals with our programs. 
— Rhonda Alvarez Licona
Helping Spirit Lodge Society |
Each month, Quest prepares about 959 hot sit-down meals right in their own kitchens, using the food they've rescued. These hot meals are served to homeless and street people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside by Quest's social service agency partners.
Quest also assists 37.334 individuals each month through partnerships with 244 social service agencies by providing clients with access to our low-cost grocery stores and by delivering raw food materials to agencies for their own meal programs.
Quest provides nearly 28,045 people per month with food through supporting food banks and 941 individuals and families through its gift certificate program.
